DENVER - Out of all the reasons someone chooses to volunteer, perhaps the one most can relate to is a story "rooted" in their childhood neighborhood.
For Richard Maez, the roots took hold with a community garden he helped grow beginning in seventh grade.
"That's when the seed of volunteering started growing in me," said Richard, one of the 2010 9Kids Who Care.
Richard's green thumb inspired Kennedy High School, Henry World School and Sabin World School to go green through recycling. As part of a personal service project, Richard organized a recycling program at all three schools. The district took 120 bins marked for disposal and placed them in classrooms to allow students to recycle renewable school supplies that normally were tossed in the trash can.
"I don't want to live in a dirty environment, and if we can use our renewable resources like recycling, it's just going to help our environment and our future," Richard said.
Not only does Richard care about the future of his environment, he also cares about the future of his peers in Denver Public Schools. Remembering how high school kids reached out to him as a young student, Richard organized a new math tutoring program (the previous one had been cancelled) to make sure younger kids were never left behind. He also recruits other high school students to join him in tutoring elementary school kids during afternoons at Sabin World School.
"It builds on their math skills in the future," Richard said. "Maybe if they see that we are giving our time, in the future, they'll give up their time for someone else and continue on that service learning volunteer work."
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